


The Princess and the Quincy

by 7PhoenixAshes



Category: Bleach
Genre: Drabble Collection, F/M, Fluff, Marriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-16
Updated: 2014-02-16
Packaged: 2018-01-12 15:20:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1190037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/7PhoenixAshes/pseuds/7PhoenixAshes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"He was her knight in shining armor.  True, he did not actually wear armor at all.  And he only used a bow, never a sword.  And he didn’t own a horse or employ a squire or live in a castle in a faraway land like knights were supposed to, either."</p><p>A series of 100-word drabbles, some fluffy, some not.</p><p>Originally posted in March 2008</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Princess and the Quincy

**Author's Note:**

> I believe I wrote this waaay back while the Hueco Mundo arc (?) was still going on, so please excuse anything that's not cannon compliant. Which is, like, everything.

* * *

_1\. Delicious_

“So, what are you waiting for?  I made it especially for you, you know!”

Ishida stared down at the “cake” he had been presented with.  Red bean paste, chocolate, Worchester sauce, pickles, octopus, peanut butter…and those were the ingredients he could _identify_.

He had the vague impression that, if left to its own devices, the monstrous concoction would eventually evolve and escape to freedom, but Orihime was staring at him with those huge, innocent eyes again.

So he took a bite.

Chewed.

And swallowed.

“So, how is it?”

“Delicious.”

He was rather surprised that he did not need to lie.

 

* * *

 

_2\. Amazing_

“Sora!”

Orihime dropped to her knees before her brother’s shrine in the living room, her face flushed with excitement.

“Sora, I know it’s been a while since we’ve talked but you’ll never guess what happened today!  He _kissed_ me Sora!  Kissed me!  It was raining and we were hiding under a tree and it was cold and so he gave me his jacket and it _felt_ like him and I told him so and he just laughed and then he, he…”

She took a deep breath.

 “And it was amazing.”

In faraway Soul Society, Inoue Sora found himself inexplicably smiling.

 

* * *

 

_ 3\. Broke _

He remembers the day her heart broke.

\---

He found her beneath a tree on the school grounds, listlessly twirling a fallen leaf between her fingers as the sun sank beneath the horizon, dying rays setting the sky aflame.

He sat down beside her, waiting in silence as the cold stars came out, one by one.

Finally, she cast down the leaf and stood, smiling down at him with a tear-streaked face.

“Thank you, Ishida-kun.”

“Are you alright?  I mean, he had no right to tell you like that—“

“Please, just don’t…”  She turned away.  “I-I think I’ve always known.”

 

* * *

 

 

_ 4\. Warning _

The wall made a peculiar crunching sound as Ishida’s back slammed into it.  Tatsuki had lifted him by the front of his shirt, and— most impressively, Ishida noted— she was holding him there one-handed.  The other hand was clenched into a rather menacing fist.

“I’m _warning_ you, Ishida, that if you ever do _anything_ to ever hurt Orihime, I swear I’ll—“

“Join Kurosaki, Kuchiki-san, and even Sado in hunting me down and dismembering me?”

His glasses flashed.

“Be assured, Arisawa-san, that whatever you all would do to me would be nothing compared to what I would do to myself.”

 

* * *

 

_5\. Shield_

Each time he had stood atop the mountains of rubble, blazing bow in his fist, she had stood behind him, guarding his back from the claws and fangs of the ravening Hollows.

Each time he had sat by the fire, bone-weary after another long battle, she had sat beside him, her cheerful chatter pushing back the black depression had claimed so many of Soul Society’s soldiers.

She had been his shield.  She had protected him, body and mind.  And after the war’s end, because she had watched over those things so well, he gave her his heart for safekeeping too.

 

* * *

 

__

_ 6\. Sword _

He was her knight in shining armor.  True, he did not actually wear armor at all.  And he only used a bow, never a sword.  And he didn’t own a horse or employ a squire or live in a castle in a faraway land like knights were supposed to, either.

But whenever she knelt upon the blood- splattered earth of the battlefield, desperately healing some fallen warrior, she felt safe knowing that he stood before her, slaying any evil that might try to reach her.

Because she knew that as much as he was her knight, she was his princess.

 

* * *

 

_ 7\. Shot _

“Hey, look at that chick!”

“The one with the boobs?”

“Heck yeah!  Think I should go talk to her?”

“No way, man.  You’ve got about as much chance of getting with a girl like that as walking to the moon.”  
“Still, a guy can try right?  At least I’ve got a better shot than…uh, than four-eyes over there!”  
“Anybody’s got a better shot than that dweeb.”

Ishida thought about pointing out that that particular “chick” was actually his girlfriend but settled instead for a vaguely superior smirk.  If that guy tried anything, he’d find a Quincy arrow up his ass.

 

* * *

 

_ 8\. Pondering _

It seemed that he learned something new about Orihime every day.  Last Monday, he had discovered that she drew even more abstractly and poorly than Rukia.  Yesterday, it had been that she had an acute grasp of the principles of quantum physics.  Today he had learned that she actually outweighed him by a quarter kilogram.  That rather confused him, considering that he was taller than she was and it wasn’t like she was pudgy or anything….

After pondering on this for a few minutes, he finally deduced the answer.

She had to ask him why his face was so red.

 

* * *

 

__

_ 9\. Mean _

Halfway through the third grade, Orihime had transferred across town to Karakura Elementary.  On her first day of class, she sat in the open seat next to a blue-haired, bespectacled boy.

That afternoon, Orihime had run home crying to her brother, sobbing that that the kids in her new school were just as mean as those in the last one.

It was not until years later did she learn from the man the boy had become that the reason that he had refused to loan her so much as a pen was that he had thought she had had “cooties”.

 

* * *

 

_ 10\. Approval _

“So, you are Inoue Orihime, yes?”

“Yes, sir, Ishida-san, sir.”

“And you have come here to seek my approval before your marriage to my son, correct?”

“Y-yes, yes, sir.  I-I believe I would make a suitable and proper wife for Ur—Ishida-kun.  I am fully prepared to support him as would be my duty as a proper and devoted spouse and provide him with the best possible—

“Please, Inoue-san, if you would stop with your well-coached recital?  It’s not as if any of that matters, anyway.”

There was a pause.

“Do you love him?”

“Yes.”

“Then you have my blessing.”

 

* * *

 

_ 11\. Reason _

“Oh, _come_ _on_ , babe.  Tell me one good reason you’ll go out with nerd-boy and not me.”

Orihime glanced away.

_Because Ishida-kun is Ishida-kun._

_Because he can stare down a charging Hollow, knock an arrow to his bow, and fire in one swift, graceful movement._

_Because of his beautiful voice._

_Because he has promised to always be there if I need him._

_Because of the way his eyes glitter blue and the corners of his mouth twitch upwards when I say something silly._

_Because he loves me.  And because I love him, too._

“Because he can sew,” she finally said.

 

* * *

 

_ 12\. Name _

“Orihime.”

Her own name, rendered in that beautifully smooth voice, was music to her ears.  Ishida-kun, no, Uryuu, had called her by that name for the first time only yesterday, straight out of the blue.  She had gaped at him for a minute before he had chuckled and pointed out that, as they had now been officially together for a while, they could drop the formalities….

“Orihime, you’re spacing out again.”

“Gaa!  Sorry, Ishi—Uryuu!  Uryuu, I’m so sorry, I keep forgetting your name and—“

He just laughed.  “All you need is practice.  Say my name again, Orihime.”

“Uryuu…”                                                                

      

* * *

 

__

_ 13\. Insinuate _

One hand tangled in her long auburn hair, he held her warm body flush against his.  His mouth pressed forcefully down upon hers, his fingers tracing light circles on the back of her neck.  She moaned softly into his parted lips, and he pulled her even closer, his other hand sliding down to grasp the back of her thigh.

At long last, they broke apart, both gasping for air.  Then, Ishida turned to smirk at the incredulous crowd gaping at the two of them, adjusting his slightly-fogged glasses.

“Is there anyone _else_ who would like to insinuate that I’m gay?

 

* * *

 

 

_ 14\. Dress _

She loved watching Ishida when he sewed.  He never used a machine—there was only the quick glide of his fingers and the silvery flash of the needle as it dove in and out of the cloth draped across his lap.  And the intent look that he always wore across his face…

“There.  All done.”

“Already?”

 “Here.  I need you to try it on.”

“Oh, no, I can’t do that!”

“Why not?  I have to make sure it fits you!”

“But Uryuu, you know it’s bad luck for the groom to see the bride in her dress before the wedding!”

 

* * *

 

_ 15\. Perhaps _

As he watched Orihime putter about her kitchen, Ishida wondered when it was that he had fallen in love with her. 

Perhaps it had begun back in the Handicrafts club, when she had been the only one willing to talk to him.  Perhaps it had been in Soul Society, when he’d discovered the strength behind her ditzy exterior, or maybe in Hueco Mundo, when he’d realized how much he missed her cheerfulness…

As if on cue, Orihime turned and flashed him a dazzling smile.

Perhaps it didn’t really matter where the love began, he decided.  Only that it lived on.

 

* * *

 

_ 16\. Soared _

“The firework festival?  I love fireworks!”

“I thought you might.”

“I do!  I love the way they just appear out of nowhere, like huge fiery flowers and light up the sky like the kind of flying saucers that beam up cows and stuff!”

“And people, too.”

“And people too!  And thank you, Ishida-kun, for inviting me!”

“It’s my pleasure, Inoue-san.”

“Say, Ishida-kun, is this a date?”

“Uh…yes?  Er, maybe?  I mean, it doesn’t have to be one, not to pressure you or anyth—“

“I think I’d like a date with you, Ishida-kun.”

\--

She remembers the day his heart soared.

 


End file.
